Hong Kong’s biggest ever gold bullion trading scam

January 24, 2019 | Brainwave Science

SITUATION

Hong Kong Police arrested two alleged ringleaders and 12 other members of a fraud syndicate for operating Hong Kong’s biggest ever bullion trading scam. Seven investors were swindled out of about HK $620 million in this trading scam over two years. Among the victim was an elderly Hong Kong national who was the biggest loser in the investment fraud.

According to Chief Inspector Tam Wai-Shun, “With the help of anti-fraud squad, police have frozen HK $220 million in related bank accounts in the operation.”

The syndicate recruited youngsters to work as brokers and identify potential investors from various countries through cold calling and social media platforms. The investors persuaded victims to trade gold on the London commodities market and make other investments with the assurance of high returns. They confirmed the victims that brokers were experienced and expert at such investments.

Tam Wai-Shun informed the media that arrested perpetrators include alleged masterminds of the fraud syndicate, former and current directors of three investment companies, brokers and holders of bank accounts used to collect the proceeds of the scam.

An investigation to verify the syndicate operating the trading scam began in October last year when elderly Hong Kong investor sought police help when they were notified their money had been lost in trading. According to Hong Kong authorities, several victims, assumed to be ethnic Chinese citizens of Hong Kong, Taiwan, the United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, met brokers in-person and were asked to sign related documents and transfer money into the accounts of investment companies in Kowloon East or personal bank accounts.

During the operation, code-named “Icepeak”, police seized watched, documents, computers, mobile phones, bank cards and some cash. However, the investigation is still ongoing and most of the suspects had been released on bail pending further investigation.

CHALLENGE

Fraud is becoming a bigger threat to our National Security and a challenge for law enforcement personnel. Due to the price of gold these days, many con artists are sending tempting invitations to consumers around the globe to lure them to invest in gold coins, gold-mining stocks, and other investment schemes. Fraud Syndicate often function in an extremely sophisticated manner such as creating beautiful fake websites backed up by phony testimonial, scammers advertise everywhere, posing as the representatives of famous companies, hiring educated good-looking employees. The main purpose of these swindlers is to trap victims to transfer fund into bogus accounts by claiming guaranteed high investment returns with little or no risk.

The biggest challenge for law enforcement personnel is the only channel to recognize such scam or syndicate is through prior complaint, however till then millions are misplaced, thousands of victims suffers, and perpetrators are untraceable. Most cases go unreported due to the victim’s guilt or small investments. The time frame of investigating these financial fraud cases are often years. Law enforcement personnel investigating these fraud cases require specific information or details from the victims at a right time, which become a biggest barricade in this case.

It is understood that financial fraud cases are complex to investigate due to lack of physical evidence and accurate information therefore, most of the scammers in such cases are not classified as perpetrators. Law enforcement personnel always find themselves in a dilemma as tracking every domestic and international bank account and social media account is impractical. The scammers always find new ways to extract money from victims through means of technology and emotions.

Gold bullion trading scam case demonstrates precisely why the law enforcement agencies need an advanced infallible forensic technology to investigate these financial fraud cases effectively in such a short time frame. The existing conventional investigative tools preferred by law enforcementagencies as intelligence-gathering tools in such cases cannot provide beneficial results due to lack of physical evidence. Thankfully, one such advanced brain-based technology which can tap inside the human brain has already been introduced by Brainwave Science and it’s called iCognative. This unique technology supportslaw enforcement agencies distinguish between the swindler and innocent and further reveal accurate crime-related details necessary to investigate this case at the right time and in the right direction without any necessity of physical evidence.

iCognative is the only technology that can protect the nation’s interest in such a critical situation. This technology understands the complexity of these cases; therefore, it provides scientific and legal means for law enforcement personnel to tap inside human brain and reveal what specific crime-related information the suspects possesses with over 99% accuracy. iCognative’s aim is to make sure that no perpetrator remains unpunished for his crime due to lack of evidence and at the same time no innocent should suffer in the process. Utilizing BrainFingerprinting in such complex financial fraud cases would be the most appropriate call for law enforcement personnel when each day counts as someone somewhere could lose money in the false faith.

iCognative technology is unbeatable, a perpetrator cannot lie or conceal any crime-related information stored inside his brain. How? Simple, this technology is based on the scientifically proven P300 and P300-MERMER brain responses, which only activates when a suspect sees a piece of information that his brain already possesses using a non-invasive proprietary headset to record brainwaves. In this financial fraud case, Hong Kong law enforcement agencies can conduct a 45-minutes iCognative test on suspects to determine what specific information they possess and are trying to conceal from the investigators. Information such as: identification of victims, financial details to track the bank accounts, details about the bank accounts, bank holder and brokers, motive behind the scam, details of other ongoing scam in Hong Kong or other countries, location of physical evidence, etc., would be easily available to the Hong Kong law enforcement personnel to investigate once the test is completed. An assigned investigator uploads all the investigative details related to this case and previous financial scam cases into the iCognative system protocol. The system records and analyzes the brain responses when case related known and confidential information (called Stimuli) is flashed to the suspects on a digital screen in the forms of phrases, words or pictures and determine with over 99% accuracy what information the suspects possesses.

iCognative, developed and marketed by Brainwave Science, is the only available investigate tool through which law enforcement personnel can identify and eliminate such complex financial scam with little sweat. iCognative is the best shield for Hong Kong government to erase crime and violence from the streets.